The present invention relates to the incineration of obnoxious fumes contained in process gas streams, and more particularly, to a direct flame fume incinerator, and method for operating same, for incinerating an oxygen bearing process gas stream to eliminate obnoxious fumes contained within the process gas stream before the process gas stream is vented to the atmosphere.
The use of fume incinerators for combusting the off gases of various industrial processes in order to incinerate and eliminate obnoxious fumes contained therein is well known in the prior art. In one type of fume incinerator commonly utilized for this purpose, termed a thermal oxidizer, the process gas stream is oxygen bearing and serves as the source of oxygen for combusting an auxiliary fuel to establish a flame in which any obnoxious fumes are incinerated. Typically, the process gas stream is first preheated by being passed in heat exchange relationship with the combustion products of the fume incinerator as the process gas stream is being passed to the burners of the fume incinerator. By preheating the process gas stream prior to combustion, the overall efficiency of the combustion process is increased and the amount of fuel gas consumed in the combustion of the process gas stream is reduced. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,251,656, 3,353,919 and 3,607,118 show fume incinerating apparatus of this type.
In order to incinerate the process gas stream, it is necessary to provide auxiliary fuel to the incinerator for establishing a flame front through which the process gas stream is passed in order to destroy any obnoxious fumes contained therein. As the process stream also serves as the source of oxygen for combustion of the fuel gas, good mixing between the fuel gas and the process gas stream must occur. It is also necessary that all of the process gas stream which was not mixed with the auxiliary fuel prior to establishment of the flame front be passed through the flame front in order to insure efficient elimination of obnoxious fumes contained in the process stream.